Father and Son, autobiography by Edmund Gosse, published anonymously in 1907. Considered a minor masterpiece, Father and Son is a sensitive study of the clash between religious fundamentalism and intellectual curiosity. The book recounts Gosse’s austere childhood, particularly his relationship with his father, the eminent zoologist Philip Henry Gosse. In the conflict between his rigid fundamentalism and mounting scientific knowledge, the elder Gosse rejected science for his faith. The younger Gosse, with his vast thirst for knowledge of the broader world, was finally unable to accept his father’s beliefs.

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September 21, 1849 London, England May 16, 1928 London English translator, literary historian, and critic who introduced the work of Henrik Ibsen and other continental European writers to English readers.

...Education of Henry Adams (printed privately 1906; published 1918). Edmund Gosse’s sensitive study of the difficult relationship between himself and his Victorian father, Father and Son (1907), and George Moore’s quasi-novelized crusade in favour of Irish art, Hail and Farewell (1911–14), illustrate the variations of intellectual...